Kiwix

We would hire additional developers to improve our solution, send some really cool goodies to our volunteers, and show those who believed in us from the start that they were right!

I don't do magic and I certainly am no genius. I am just someone who looked at the same problem as everyone else, but looked at it from a different angle. The problem is connectivity, and the solution is to take it out of the equation to focus on sharing content.

Kiwix is not successful because of me but because it answers a real need, even more so when millions of kids where put under lockdown and expect to learn via an internet many did not have access to. We scale because we have no intention of telling these users that are in India, South America or Africa what part of the internet is good for them in their own language. We simply bring them what's already out there for others, more fortunate ones, and treat them like they are equally smart when given the chance to learn. 

We do not plan to change the world, but we want to make it easier for the world to change itself. And that, I believe, is a matter of bringing knowledge to as many people as possible.

We want to bring internet content to people without internet access. The web is 30 years old, and only the richest half of the world has a decent connectivity. The poorest 4 billions are still in the dark because of cost, infrastructure or outright censorship: and when schools close because of Covid, the digital divide becomes a moat.

Kiwix is built on the technological assumption that storage is cheaper than data, and that we can therefore simply figure out a different means to the same end. We thus make educational websites (Wikipedia, Khan Academy, or anything, in any language) available to all as highly portable copies that people can browse without connectivity. The user experience is identical to browsing the original resource.

Kiwix does not curate content: we believe that people should be free to choose what suits them best, and it's not our role to tell someone in Uganda, the Solomons or Ecuador what's best for them in their own language.

We have 4 million users around the world, aim at 100 millions by 2025. Kiwix is found in schools in rural Africa, Indian universities, refugee camps, prisons and countries where net censorship abounds.

We can store the entirety of Wikipedia on an average cell phone. We can convert almost any website into a single archive that people can easily share and browse anytime, anyplace. If connectivity is what prevents people from accessing online knowledge, our solution is to skip an illusory quest for permanent connectivity and focus on permanent access.

Kiwix is disruptive because it's a means to an end. We are not trying to push any particular branded content, we are building an offline copy of the free internet that people can use in times of crisis. Turns out, we've just been through a massive crisis that showed how much internet access was needed for education, and how many would have been left behind had we not been there for them.

We are bringing internet content to the 4 billion people who do not have internet access. We are bringing online knowledge to those left behind the digital divide. We know we're effective because we grow through word of mouth and across many regions, and find out use cases that we had not planned for. 

We thought that our project would be helpful to schools in rural West Africa, but found that Kiwix is now being smuggled into North Korea to tell people about the outside world; that sailors around the world use Kiwix; we're also being rolled out at Sandia Lab (where they design US nukes) because they are not allowed to access the internet; in US, German and Swiss prisons where people are trained to get new jobs; refugee camps in Greece, Jordan, Bangladesh or Burundi distribute content via Kiwix. We probably have stories for almost every country in the world where we changed people's lives. In 2020 about 5% of the emails we got were spontaneous thank you emails.

Currently 4 million people in 212 countries and territories. These numbers are based on Partner feedback as well as server stats, so considering Kiwix is being used offline and is entirely free to use (which means that we find out every day about orgs that use the software) this should be seen as a lower bound.

We aim to double our user base every year or so, meaning that we should be reaching 8 million users sometime next year, and be anywhere between 50-100 million users by 2025.

Our impact is directly measured through our partner's success, and we often use and collect their own assessments to estimate how we can change people's lives.

Because we provide educational content to students without internet access, we fit squarely under SDGs 4 (education) and 10 (reduced inequality). Common KPIs measured by partners range from increased attendance to classes, to better test results for pupils to, in times of Covid lockdowns, being able to keep on learning and follow the regular curriculum like rich (or connected) kids do.

With 4 billion people without reliable internet access, Kiwix pretty much sells itself, which is good. We still need resources to follow up with potential partners, particularly when they're asking for new content. We need python developers to increase the breadth of our library, and a UX specialist to improve our cardshop experience so as to increase our non-grant revenue: these will partly be bootstrapped, but a prize would help hire them earlier rather than later.

We also need to expand our content in native, non-English or French languages (particularly Arabic). Each partner comes with suggestions, but increased exposure would lead to more people being aware that they can bring content offline, and therefore a broader offer for us (which in turns brings more people with more ideas, and so on and so on).

Last but not least, we need to encourage educational content providers to publish their content under open licenses. Most are not hostile to the idea, they just don't want to be alone to do it. Having an internationally recognized solution that would show them what the impact of it can be would definitely provide a welcome boost to our engagement efforts.

I think there still is an illusion with many decision-makers that universal connectivity is the only way forward. There needs to be an awareness that offline internet is a valid, cost-efficient option between no internet at all and broadband for all, particularly when it comes to education.

I'm an immigrant living in the minority-language region of Switzerland, whereas my co-founder is another immigrant living in the majority-speaking region. He is a techie with no knowledge of business development or communication, I am a talker with no shame about knowing very little in terms of code. His parents were middle-class, mine were definitely low wage workers. Among our core team of four, there are three first-generation immigrants.

Our main developer is based in Bamako, Mali. We do not select applicants based on the school they went to (usually a social marker) but on the code they produce and their commitment to free software. We adhere to and enforce the Contributor Covenant, and or code respects the four freedoms of Free software. We try to give priority to female candidates in our recruitments, salaries are available to anyone in the team. 

Our advisory board (3 females, 2 males) is structurally made so that each member works and represents one of the geographies or demographies that we try to serve (e.g. South America, India, Africa, Middle East and refugee camps).

We are a diverse team in terms of skills, with very little overlap exept for the fact that we all started a company at some point. In all aspects of business we complement rather than duplicate each other's effort.

I have lived and worked on four continents. I have witnessed extreme poverty and inequality first hand while in West Africa, and censorship while in China. Both my co-founder and I have been Wikimedians from the early days and both continue to participate in the Wikimedia movement: this is where Kiwix came from, and most of our supporters within the free knowledge movement do not come from rich chapters but rather from places where connectivity is a daily issue. They know we know and some of them are actually actively volunteering as Kiwix evangelists in their home countries.

We always have a lot of applicants for the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and obviously a lot less slots. We tell students upfront what their chances are, and published a series of templates and guides to help them craft the best application possible. They can reach both my co-founder and myself directly, and we make a point to send a personal email to all applicants who were turned down to explain what did not work out.

Then, this year, we had a student actively bullying others - as in online harassment. Rather than ban him outright and then play whack-a-mole on our open channels, we decided to speak with him to ask and discuss what led to his behaviour, without patronizing or pulling rank on him. We also reached out to the people he had harassed to let them know that we had their back and were not just waiting for the application period to end and the matter to resolve itself.

The bully apologized and left the org on his own accord, and all the other volunteers remained on board.

On the Swiss national radio:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/forum-rts_kiwix-la-start-up-qui-vole-aux-secours-des-activity-6806590827373043712-kQri

All extra funding will be invested in the Hotspot platform as it is the most impactful in terms of users and revenue generation. Our goal is both financial stability and serving users, and this platform definitely has the best potential for both.

We provide content and support to Orange Foundation (mostly active in North, West and Central Africa).

We provide development services to Library without Borders own platform.

We also provide customized Wikipedia subsets to Endlessm and Arizona State (SolarSPELL), e.g. the Wikipedia for Schools selection.